Hyam Maccoby, Ritual and Morality: the Ritual Purity System and Its Place in Judaism.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xii + 231. Cloth, $59.95.

The October, 1999 issue of INTERPRETATION, focusing on the Book of Leviticus, directed attention to the significant role of ritual purity in both the Bible and Judaism. This work by Hyam Maccoby reinforces the positive aspects of that role. In the light of Exod 19:6 Israelites are regarded as a priestly nation. But there is clearly a primacy of the ethical over the ritual. Succinctly put, ritual "exists as the self-identifying code of a dedicated group whose main purpose is ethical" (p. viii). In every case where a conflict exists between ritual and morality, morality enjoys pride of place. This distinction holds true in both biblical and rabbinic Judaism.

Acknowledging that there is probably a hygienic component in the origins of the purity system, Maccoby admits links between other religious traditions and Israel's purity system. For example, he sees the role of the two birds in the "leprosy" purification of Leviticus 14 (one killed, the other set free) as connected to the stories of Osiris and Set, Baal and Mot, Romulus and Remus, etc. Similarly in the legislation regarding the Red Cow in Numbers 19, it is not a question of a sacrificial animal but "an incarnation of the Goddess (e.g., Isis-Hathor), powerful for both good and evil" (p. 109).

Maccoby's own view of ritual impurity is that it expresses the birth-death cycle that comprises mortality. Consequently everything that is a feature of this cycle must be excluded from the temple of the God who does not die and was not born. In holding this view, Maccoby takes issue with two prominent scholars in the matter of ritual purity/impurity. For J. Neusner the rabbinic literature is separated by a wide gulf from the Bible to such a degree that the Mishnah sets itself up as a rival to the Bible. For Maccoby, however, there is continuity, not radical discontinuity between the rabbinic literature and the Bible. For J. Milgrom there is indeed continuity between rabbinic and biblical thought. But for Milgrom "pollution becomes a miasma that threatens not God but the Temple; if the Temple becomes irremediably polluted, God will no longer reside in it ..." (p. 168). Maccoby contends that, where the sin-offering is concerned, the atonement relates more easily to the sin of the offerer, rather than the defilement of the altar.

Regarding Luke's infancy narrative the author's views are not always convincing. For example, he relates Jesus' birth in a manger to the goddess Isis-Harbor with her child Horus in a cow-byre. It seems more likely, however, that Luke is referring to Isaiah 1:3 and thus suggests that the judgment of Isaiah is now repealed in that Israel now recognizes the manger of its lord. Similarly Maccoby sees the presence of shepherds at the birth of Jesus after the manner of shepherds at the birth of Mithras. Given Luke's interest in the First Testament, it appears more probable that the role of shepherds pasturing their sheep in Luke 2:8 reflects his view that the Tower of the Flock of Micah 4:8 is situated in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem.

This book performs the function of a barometer in discussing the various views concerning the ritual purity system. It also indicates that both biblical and rabbinic legislation regards that system, not as an extraneous appendage, but as an intrinsic element bound up with the role of Israel as a holy and dedicated people. In that light ritual serves ethics, not vice versa.

John F. Craghan
St. Norbert College
De Pere, WI 54115